DESCRIPTION

Photography courtesy of Heather Taylor.

Started in 2018 in Columbus, Ohio by dance scholar Lucille Toth, On Board(hers) is a series of contemporary dance workshops and performances based on the experiences and testimonies of womxn from different origin, age, race, socio-economic status, level of education and dance background. Now facilitating workshops in France, Germany, Mexico and the US, the group uses movement, language, and trauma-informed techniques to show the healing and therapeutic dimension of community dancing and confront the impact of immigration, displacement and/or multiculturalism on their life and identity.

On Board(hers) is a space where vocal accents, multilingualism, and cultural pluralities are valued. It aims to create a sense of community in defiance of those who target social, cultural and racial differences as a threat. By collecting testimonies and facilitating the transformation of traumas into movement forms, we seek to model best practices for transformational community engagement through storytelling and show how global mobility is part of contemporary national and global history.

In our workshops, we explore the richness and importance of global mobility, as well as the power dynamics and tensions at stake.

OUR WORKSHOPS

During our workshops, participants are asked to explore their voice through writing, speaking (both in their native tongue and in the host country’s language), and create gestures representing their experiences. Regardless of their level of dance training, the participants of On Board(hers) are encouraged to create their own stories and perform them themselves.
We developed different protocols inspired by trauma-informed methods and improvisation-based techniques; protocols that we constantly revisit to better serve the variety of demographics we work with.

Since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, we also offer online workshops.